BoxRec

Im gonna come out of the closet & admit I was a Mercer fan !
Ray Mercer to me was a decent fighter with limited skills , & a learning on the job kind a fighter.
He started late as a ametuer around 25-27 yrs old, & won a gold at the olympics by 30. So yeah he was a work in proggress.
But He did pretty good for awhile until injuries , bad fights, & sitting on the side lines caught up to him.
He did make a comeback of sorts like a Foreman, & Holmes , Just didnt have the title former heavyweight champion(unless you count the WBO).
When he was preparing for the Wlad Klitscko fight I started thinking back when Mercer was in line for big fights. I flashed back to his career.
The story went that Mercer wouldnt sleep in the same room with Bowe because Bowe didnt have heart & Mercer was on a mission possibly on a collision course with Bowe down the road.
He turned pro fightin notable names as O. Ocasio, Jerry Jones, & Bert Cooper this is my favorite Mercer fight. These two went toe to toe, Ray suffered a broken jaw that was so grotesque it had to hurt, but Mercer showed heart ,a will to win & a chin even broke couldnt be knocked out!
He had the come from behind to ko F. Damiani in the 9th. dramatic stuff.
Who could forget the huge showdown with the duke Tommy Morrison.
Both undefeated fighting for a shot at the WBO & maybe get a shot at Holyfield.
Morrison started fast blasting Mercer with god ugly combo's (uppercuts from the floor & booming hooks). Mercer ate everyone without flinching ,
then in the 4th it was his turn to dish out the leather, & thats just what he did. In the 5th round Mercer unleashed the most frightful beating I ever seen a fighter receive ever.
Morrison was no longer undefeated, & maybe touched after this fight, As he bobbed & weaved on his stool minutes after the fight was over ! scary stuff.
He would lose his very next fight a superfight to Larry Holmes in horrible fashion & the boxing world in 2 fights went from saying he was a future champion to a
bum who was to old & one demensional. The boxing world never forgave him for the poor showing in the Holmes fight.
He would have more such moments along a speckled career.
Mercer , because of the up & down career he was having ,missed out on the big fights , with Mike Mooorer, Tyson Foreman, & the title shot with Bowe that was to make him the champ like he had expected to acheive.
Freguson was the culprit who ruin this showdown, winnind a one sided fight & then having the world accuse Mercer of trying coax him into taking a bribe to save the Bowe fight! (Conversations caught on tape during fight)
Mercer would win the rematch on PPV in stale fashion.
He would finally get some big names down the road against a comebacking Holyfield, he got knocked down for the first time in losing a close fight.
He then fought Lennox Lewis in a grueling fight only to lose a majority call but open everyones again to the mercerless one.
Mercer last big win was a gainst the former 2 time champion Whitherspoon who was on a winning streak taking a good win over him in ten.
In these last big fights , Mercer showed he wasnt one demensional by including in his arsenal A solid Jab & good body work with much better stanima.He had what everyone else had experience.

But after this comeback of sorts he disappered for years to comeback to the Wlad fight & he just couldnt shake time & rust off his back & suffered his first stoppage loss.
Its a shame he didnt get the big fights when he wanted them , He could have won some of these.
His chin could have gave Tyson fits had it gone in the later rounds from 92-99. Boew might have gotten ko'ed by a mercer bomb being out of shape all the time, or come out on top of a slugfetst against the equally hard hitting Moorer at the time, with Morrers questionable whiskers!.

Who knows what could have happened had Mercer stayed on track & never gave up his dream. I do believe he woiuld have fought a whole lot better with Klitscko had it happened maybe as early as 99, he wouldnt have been stopped like he was, & possibly outlasted the giant & come from behind to win by ko.
Its just a afterthought?

Good post!

And hey, what's wrong with being a Mercer fan? He had plenty of 'em!

Yes, Mercer's fight with Cooper was not only one of Mercer's best, but probably one of the best fights ever at heavyweight.

I also think Mercer was a much improved fighter around the time he was fighting Holyfield, Lewis, etc. from the time he was fighting guys like Cooper, Holmes, Morrison, etc. Mercer in the later stages of his career had a very good jab (something he hadn't had earlier in his career) and better defense and skills. Early in his career, he had mostly been just a raw, mauling, brawling fighter, and that's why Holmes was able to beat him.

I really think Mercercould have done more had he stayed active .
If he had got a fight with the Klitscko in the 97 to 99 era like they kicked around. He could have been the first to ko one of these guys. When he fought Wlad it was to late . I wonder if they knew that too & thats why the held off so long before one of them fought him.
He might have possibly beaten a rusty out of wind Tyson to. Mike won all his fights inside the distance since 91,92.Ray could easily endured the bombs of iron Mike & came Back to blast old Tyson out in the 10 to 12 rounds with a movie like comeback! I can see it happening .
Mercer would have given Moorer a war had they fought for the WBO title like they were suppose to. This fight would have been a gem I know it!

I must admit I will never forget Mercers brutal KO of Tommy Morrison.

Does anyone know Mercers Amatuer record?

surefire72 wrote:He might have possibly beaten a rusty out of wind Tyson to. Mike won all his fights inside the distance since 91,92.Ray could easily endured the bombs of iron Mike & came Back to blast old Tyson out in the 10 to 12 rounds with a movie like comeback! I can see it happening .

Tyson has been avoiding Mercer for as far back as I can remember. Even recently, Tyson was given the opportunity to fight the 40-ish, washed-up version of Mercer, and Tyson still wouldn't do it.

I would like to know more about his ametuer days too.
He fought alot of good names.
But the Tyson gig yeah mike avoided the fight simply because the chin factor.
Tyson is not confident in his stanima how could he ?

The Keed wrote:Tyson has been avoiding Mercer for as far back as I can remember. Even recently, Tyson was given the opportunity to fight the 40-ish, washed-up version of Mercer, and Tyson still wouldn't do it.

Tyson is easily scared... Easily broken... Scared of Holyfield, scared of Foreman, scared of Lewis... Why wouldn't he be scared of Mercer too? People call Tyson the baddest man on the planet... Why, because he beats up women, and drunks outside the ring? In the ring I think Mercer is the baddest man, and he's atleast semi-sadist. Look at his facial expressions when he KO's people, it's scary, but you just gotta watch.

Ray was a decent boxer, but was never going to be a world beater.

Sure he started his career well, and noted some impressive victories, crushing the unbeaten Francesco Damiani with one punch, and an absolutely brutal KO of Tommy Morrison added to his stock.

But then he was outboxed and humilated with ease by an almost 43 year old larry Holmes!!! this alone tells me enough about Mercer as a world beater.

Jesse Ferguson, useful journeyman as he was should have been no trouble, but once again ray Lost and was humilated. Really Mercers career highlight was given Lewis nightmares, but at the end of the day, he lost.

Tyson is easily scared... Easily broken...

Really? I can only remember 3 guys doing it, and he didnt exactly fall over in them matches, he took some serious shots.

Scared of Holyfield, scared of Foreman, scared of Lewis...

Well he fought holyfield twice, and Faced Lennox. Unlike Foreman himself, who has been running from Holmes for over 20 years

Why wouldn't he be scared of Mercer too?

Because of his loss to a 42 year old Holmes and Jesse Ferguson, hardly a list to be scared of, is it?

People call Tyson the baddest man on the planet... Why, because he beats up women, and drunks outside the ring?

No, because at the time he was called this, people where terrofied of a man who had pretty much destroyed everyone he had been in with, bar douglas. The same cannot be said of Mercer.

In the ring I think Mercer is the baddest man, and he's atleast semi-sadist. Look at his facial expressions when he KO's people, it's scary, but you just gotta watch

Yeah, but KO'ing the likes Of spinks, Holmes, Berbick and Bruno, is far more 'bad' and respected than the likes of morrison, Pegues and Don steele

IN his hey day Mercer was avoided as much as Tyson was they just waited to see him lossen his grip on his career & watch to see him get old like fighters are doing with Hopkins.
Mercer is a talent but a wasted talent.
But he could have won the title no doubt in my mind had he kept in shape
& winning but he didnt & thats why he is relegated to never was!
Its a shame cause i liked his style & the way he got guys out of there!
He could have beaten Bowe Had the upset with furgeson not happened.
I see a 12 round win for the army guy>

The_Power wrote:

Tyson is easily scared... Easily broken...

Really? I can only remember 3 guys doing it, and he didnt exactly fall over in them matches, he took some serious shots.

Scared of Holyfield, scared of Foreman, scared of Lewis...

Well he fought holyfield twice, and Faced Lennox. Unlike Foreman himself, who has been running from Holmes for over 20 years

Why wouldn't he be scared of Mercer too?

Because of his loss to a 42 year old Holmes and Jesse Ferguson, hardly a list to be scared of, is it?

People call Tyson the baddest man on the planet... Why, because he beats up women, and drunks outside the ring?

No, because at the time he was called this, people where terrofied of a man who had pretty much destroyed everyone he had been in with, bar douglas. The same cannot be said of Mercer.

In the ring I think Mercer is the baddest man, and he's atleast semi-sadist. Look at his facial expressions when he KO's people, it's scary, but you just gotta watch

Yeah, but KO'ing the likes Of spinks, Holmes, Berbick and Bruno, is far more 'bad' and respected than the likes of morrison, Pegues and Don steele

#1. Tyson himself said that's he's afraid every time he steps in the ring.

#2. He was afraid of those guys whether he fought them or not.

#4,5. Just saying how Mercer is more of a "bad" man... Not based on who he beat, but his emotions in the ring.

I wasn't trying to say that Mercer was better than Tyson... But he sure is a seriously sick dude... And I'd rather fight anyone who has beaten Mercer, than Mercer himself.

Mercer is a real good fighter, not great but thats his fault .
Had he retired a Holmes like Tyson did it would have done wonders for his career. If Mercer blasted him out of there it would have been a total reverse of the path he had taken
.
I think if he knew how much a impact the Holmes fight had on his career he would have trained & fought differently. This win would have led to a shot to Evander while he was still fresh , He could have had a more lucrative career, If he had beaten Holy then he could have had fights with Foremans, Lewis, Bowe, then instead of later when time & rust took its toll on a strong but limited fighter.
But regardless how it went this why I like the fighter anyway he still went a long way!
Theres a lot of IFs here but this is in retrospect anyways

I remember watching Mercer win Gold at the Olympics on TV, the commontaters were already talking up a Tyson - Mercer fight then!

Were now many years later on and in a different Centuary and people are still talking about the same possible match-up, Boxing can be so strange at times but that's one of the reasons why I love it

mercers way too old to fight or even beat tyson now.

i like him too, hard headed & tough, i have almost every single fight of his on tape. nearly all 40 of them. great to watch.

doesn't alter the fact his tactics in the klitschko fight were moronic and he blew his big shot (AGAIN).

mercer is just a fat old man looking for that last big payday. nothing more.

Oh, the Klitschko fight was a perfect move on ther part. mercer was ashell of himself, & I knew it. I went out that night & taped it instead of watchuing it. That tells you something because I love live fights more than any other way. I have many of his fights too but I loss some due to bad tapes & wear & tear its ashame it pisses me off when I have a fight for 20 years & then pop it in to find out its gone bad mood maker there!